DOE endorses use of alcohol fuels After an intensive, year-long study of alcohol fuels, the Department of Energy has come out firmly in favor of them. In its just-issued "Report of the Alcohol Fuels Policy Review," DOE says that "alcohol fuels such as gasohol can help the U.S. stretch its petroleum supplies now and increasingly through the 1980's." From now until 1985, DOE says, alcohol's contribution will be mainly in the form of ethanol blends with gasoline, in particular, gasohol, a mixture of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol. The contribution will be "modest," displacing perhaps 40,000 bbl per day of oil by 1985. But even that amount could reduce petroleum imports as much as 0.4%, "if minimal petroleum is used in the manufacture of ethanol. "Though alcohol fuels cannot be a total or, in the near term, even a major solution to our national energy needs, they do represent an important energy component and building block for the longer term," DOE says. After 1985, the potential may be quite large—if major new ethanol and methanol plants are built during the early 1980's and if fuel users take advantage of alcohol fuels' properties. At a DOE press conference in Chicago, Les Goldman, deputy assistant secretary for policy evaluation, noted that gasohol is "the fastest growing substitute for high-octane gasoline." Gasohol is now sold in 28 states, at more than 800 service stations. Ethanol fuel production now amounts to about 60 million gal per year (4000 bbl per day) and is expected to reach 300 million gal per year (20,000 bbl per day) by 1982. Not only is gasohol the "fastest growing substitute," Goldman adds, it's the only substitute of consequence that's available now or that will be available by 1985. Therefore, the Administration intends to do what it can to increase ethanol production. For example, action is pending to make permanent the present temporary exemption of gasohol froijHhe 4 cent-per-gal federal gasoline tax. Now alcohol plants probably will soon qualify for a 20% investment tax credit, rather than the normal 10%. The Treasury Department soon will propose new regulations to ease the regulatory burden now imposed on producers of alcohol fuels. And DOE plans to increase its R&D funding for alcohol fuels research, to $24.9 million in fiscal 1980. The DOE review examines three frequently raised objections to etha-
nol fuels—high cost, inefficient conversion of energy, and possible interference with food supplies—and finds the problems to be surmountable. Unsubsidized, ethanol currently sells for $1.20 to $1.50 per gal. However, DOE says, by employing advanced technology in large-scale plants, it should be possible to produce ethanol and sell it profitably for $1.00 per gal. Already, subsidies (mostly in the form of reduced taxes) make gasohol competitive in price with unleaded premium gasoline. DOE concedes that older distilleries use more energy from oil or gas than is contained in the ethanol they make. However, modern plants can have a "clearly positive (though small) net energy balance," even using only gas and oil as fuels. But ethanol plants can be designed to burn "less scarce" fuels, converting them into high-quality transportation fuels. The DOE review also concludes that there is no immediate danger that increased ethanol production would decrease food supplies. Even now, it says, there are sufficient surplus and waste materials, including cheese whey, citrus wastes, and "dis-
tressed" or substandard grains, to yield 660 million gal per year (44,000 bbl per day) of ethanol. Copies of the report on alcohol fuels policy review are available from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Rd., Springfield, Va. 22161. Report number is GPO 061-000-00313-4; price is $7.25. D
Chemical mergers down from a year ago Total U.S. merger activity declined 10% in the second quarter of 1979 to 537 net announcements from 596 a year ago, according to W. T. Grimm & Co., the Chicago-based merger specialist. This brings the total net merger announcements for the first half to 1117, up about 1% over those recorded in the first half last year. For chemicals, paints, and coatings, net merger announcements declined 20% in the second quarter to 16 from the same period in 1978. The decrease in the second quarter follows a jump of more than 90% in net merger activity in the first quarter (C&EN, April 16, page 7). For the first half,
Giant cracks cover Jupiter's moon Europa Jupiter's satellite Europa looks like a giant cracked egg in this first close-up photograph taken last week as Voyager II made its final approach to Jupiter. Despite the lines on its surface, Voyager scientists call Europa "the smoothest planet in the solar system," for the cracks, though large—6 to 10 miles wide and as much as 1000 miles long—are shallow, less than 100 yards deep. The mottled areas in the lower part of the photograph are probably small craters, but these, too, seem to be small—a bit more than 3 miles in diameter. Europa is the same size as earth's moon, and, like the moon, consists almost entirely of rock. On Europa, however, this rock is covered with a crust of ice. It is probably cracks in the ice crust that appear in this picture as dark lines. The apparent lack of any mountains leads Voyager scientists to suspect that this crust may be as much as 60 miles thick.
July 16, 1979 C&EN
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